Humane Society takes Washington Wildlife Dept to Court over Killing Sea Lions

[Annces]

(The Washington State Fish and Wildlife wants to kill sea lions near the Bonneville Dam in Oregon saying that they eat salmon. However studies show they have a small effect, if any on salmon populations and that fisherman are depleting the salmon populations.)



Humane Society Arguments Open Briefing In Appeals Court Sea Lion Removal Case
March 27, 2009


The Humane Society of the United States re-launched its legal effort to reverse federal agency and court decisions allowing the lethal removal of California sea lions from below Bonneville Dam on the lower Columbia River.


In a legal brief filed Monday (March 23) the HSUS argues that NOAA Fisheries Service has failed to explain how it can judge as "significant" the impacts predatory sea lions have on Columbia basin salmon runs while deciding that other, greater sources of mortality are not significant.


"To accept the agency's view of administrative law would, for example, allow the Social Security Administration to grant benefits to a person that suffers from a 4 percent disability despite, and without ever explaining, numerous past decisions denying such benefits for people that suffer from a 15 to 20 percent disability," according to the HSUS brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.


The brief also faults U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman for accepting NOAA Fisheries arguments about the legitimacy of the lethal take authority granted to the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington under Section 120 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.




The opening brief says "NMFS's decision to authorize the killing of native, federally protected animals that are having a documented 0.4 to 4.2 percent impact on the spring salmon run is impossible to reconcile with: (1) NMFS's 2005 decision finding that fishermen's annual take of up to 17 percent of listed salmon is not significant and has only 'minimal adverse effects on Listed Salmonid ESUs in the Columbia River Basin;' (2) the States' 2008 decision to increase fishing quotas from 9 percent to 12 percent of the total spring run; and (3) NMFS's 2007 decision finding that hydroelectric dam take up to 60 percent of listed juvenile salmonids and up to 17 percent of listed adult salmonids meet or exceed the objectives of doing no harm and contributing to recovery with respect to the ESUs."


full article
http://www.cbbulletin.com/327147.aspx#

[pscot]

1. This is a misguided effort

Sea lions make excellent cat food. Is your kitty getting enough vitamin E?

[Dead_Parrot]

2. That's a great idea!

My cats have miserable ever since we ran out of tinned Baiji. This could well be a suitable replacement...

[pscot]

3. It would also benefit killer whales

which are quietly starving to death.